Willis Center to shut its doors in Feb.

The Henry Lee Willis Center, a social service agency that lost its state funding last month, will close all its programs and lay off 158 full- and part-time employees by Feb. 6.

Carlton A. Watson, the Willis Center’s executive director, said in an emailed statement Thursday morning that the center is working with the state “to ensure our clients are provided with quality, uninterrupted care during this time of transition.”

Mr. Watson’s statement continued: “As individual contracts come to an end and specific programs are eliminated, the Willis Center will be conducting layoffs of employees through Feb. 6, at which time the center’s program operations will cease. Some staff will be retained on a temporary basis to assist with transition planning, and we anticipate others will be assumed by similar organizations in the service area.”

According to a notice of layoffs that the Willis Center made with the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, the Willis Center will lay off 38 case managers, 32 direct care staff, nine program directors, seven directors of various programs, and positions such as residential counselors (six), clinicians (six) and therapeutic mentors (seven).

“Absent some extraordinary circumstance … all employees will be laid off no later than that date” of Feb. 6, said the filing, which was signed by Mr. Watson on Dec. 20, 2012. “This closing is intended to be permanent, not temporary.”

The layoffs may also shut down about 20 offices and residential programs throughout Worcester County, including the administration offices at 119 Forest St. and 44 Front St., both in Worcester.

A spokesman for the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services, Alec Loftus, said the state is working closely with the Willis Center to develop transition plans for all of the clients of the Willis Center. The state is working to ensure that all clients continue to receive services from other agencies.

According to the layoff notice, facilities and offices that are potentially closing in Worcester are: Family Care Worcester on Front Street; Families & Communities Together on May Street; Shepherd’s Place I and II on Paine Street and Ives Street; Channing House on Catharine Street; Footsteps on Woodland Street; Linda Fay Griffin House on Northampton Street; Next Step on Queen Street; Tides/Vision House on Wyman Street; Casa La Vida on Providence Street; the Neighborhood Serv-Food Pantry on Tacoma Street; and the Neighborhood Serv-Plumley on Laurel Street.

Also potentially closing down will be the Willis House in Hudson; Hope House in Leicester; an office on Parker Street in Gardner; and Family Care Northeast, in Methuen.

The Willis Center, which has been a nonprofit in the city since 1991, operates social services programs in Worcester and surrounding towns, including substance recovery services, child and adolescent services, neighborhood services, developmental services and homeless family services, according to the organization’s website. It also offered counseling and residential treatment to people with HIV and AIDS, according to documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

The nonprofit has a $12.6 million annual budget, of which $11.6 million came from four state agencies: the Department of Public Health, the Department of Child and Family Services, the Department of Developmental Services and the Department of Housing and Community Development.

Between January and June 2012, the organization eliminated a $285,000 deficit, and was running a surplus, Mr. Watson said in a previous statement concerning the Willis Center’s finances. Last month, the Willis Center reduced its full- and part-time staff by 24 positions, from 185 to 161.

The center had announced in December that it would continue operating for 60 days, hoping that its finances would improve and it would stay open for business.

The state has not laid out the reasons behind the shutoff of state funds. Mr. Loftus previously said the state contracts were canceled “based on serious concerns with financial management and client care issues.”

The Willis Center had been financially troubled for some time, having had to close several programs and lay off dozens of employees five years ago. In January 2011, the nonprofit struggled to meet its payroll for its 185 full- and part-time employees.